As the clock approached midnight on Monday night, the 26th of July, malls and shops around the country were deserted for the most part. All the regular shoppers had long since gone home, even movie-goers were not to be seen.

Despite this, a small but very dedicated set of fans were gathering in eager anticipation for a new game to be released, you guessed it, Starcraft 2.

A full 12 years after the first game was launched, its sequel, Starcraft 2 was officially released to the world last night.

Across the globe thousands of Starcraft zealots amassed, some building intricate costumes for the big day, most simply trying to contain their excitement.

TechSmart attended the midnight launch at the BT Games store in Brooklyn Mall, Pretoria, and here too the excitement was palpable. About 40 gamers were gathered outside the sole open store in the mall, waiting patiently for that last few minutes to tick by.

The event

We have to give praise to BT Games for hosting this event exceptionally well. Everything runned smoothly and there were no sad faces to be seen. They even held a ticket raffle which resulted in a few lucky pre-order buyers walking away with the Collector’s edition of the game.

We asked one of the attendees, Miro Schoeman, what he was looking forward to most regarding the new game. “I can’t wait to play the campaign, I’m not that big into the multiplayer myself but Blizzard always tells the most amazing stories in their games.”

After the excitement of the launch most of the attendees quickly dispersed, no doubt off to install their copies before the sun rose. We did the same, and right off the bat ‘impressed’ is the only word we’d use to describe Blizzard’s latest masterpiece.

The quite hefty (12 GB) install takes a bit of time but to help you through it a very cool video is played as the game installs, recapping the events of the previous games.

Afterwards one is left to listen to the game’s awe inspiring soundtrack, then it’s a simple matter of linking the game to your Battle.net account (which can also be created while the game installs), downloading a small update, and getting ready to drop into the most anticipated RTS of the decade.

Unfortunately we were only able to enjoy about an hour of game time after which the early morning winter weather became too much.

For a game to hold something like a successful midnight launch says a thing or two about its popularity. If it can draw gamers, possibly the laziest consumer group on the planet out of their homes then Blizzard has already succeeded in making a memorable game.

If you're considering purchasing the game, check out our price comparison for an idea of what to expect.

Images in the gallery are snapshots from various events held around the world courtesy of Blizzard.